


Decay and Rebirth

by AbelardTullus



Category: Half-Life
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 10:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18658603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbelardTullus/pseuds/AbelardTullus
Summary: At last, the rift was in recession, Black Mesa was closer to it's own rescue, all they could do left was evacuate whoever they can, the heroes of honour, Gina and Colette, being the first to teleport from the doomed facility to safety. However, as all things do, it does not go to plan.





	1. Decay

“We did it! The rift is in recession! It’s up to Lambda now to ensure the alien force does not hold it open any longer!” Dr. Keller couldn’t sound surer that his work was done, Gina and Colette gathered themselves, they’d been fighting long and hard, and it was finally over.

 

Their return to Dr. Keller couldn’t have been greeted with more excitement and joy than they’d experienced over the last 3 days, as if none of it ever happened. “Gina, Colette! You did fantastically, we’re one step away from being out of here!” Gina leaned herself by the wall trying to catch her breath with a wide smile on her face, Colette almost leapt her way over to Keller to hug him, a grin as wide as a ravine “We sure as hell are, you old crone!”.

Keller patted the metal back of her HEV suit “Now now, like I said, we’ve still got one last step”, she backed up so he could turn around to his computer, “We’re able to make use of that harmonic flux you experienced to get you out of here, we’ve almost finished setting up some teleporters to get you out of bounds. We should have the residual energy from the resonance cascade to get you much further than we initially could”.

 

Keller started a program, listing various teleporter entrance generators, and a satellite map of the surrounding area of Black Mesa, Gina collected herself and leaned in with Colette to see what Keller was up to. “We’re sending you eastwards, you should end up near Hobbs, from there you’re going to contact an ex-employee from here named Cubbage, he should have the resources to get you the rest of the way home”.

Gina tightened her hair bun, “Cubbage? I remember him, didn’t he insist on challenging Aperture Science’s Borealis?”

Keller chuckled “That he did, couldn’t get the funding for it, especially since the Borealis was a miraculous disaster, he wasn’t much of a smart man, but he had a good charisma to him”.

 

Keller leaned back to talk to the scientist on his left “Dr. Janus, could you initiate the Xen relay?”, the scientist nodded, “Right then, get yourself onto the platforms in the other room, we’ll get the teleportation matrix set up, and you too will have the pleasure of escaping first, it’s the least we could do”.

The 2 doctors nodded, and moved into the other room, standing on the appropriate platforms, facing towards the windows where they could see Keller. They shuffled in place while the teleportation started charging. Gina looked at Colette for a moment, and then back to Keller. Colette looked at Gina briefly, and then to Keller.

They looked at each other again, and locked eyes momentarily, before awkwardly staring back at Keller. Gina blushing, Colette with a sly smirk.

“We’ll see you soon. Final sequence in 3…” their hearts started racing.

“2…” Gina breathed in and out.

“1!” a bright orange light flashed, their eyes blinded by white, they could feel themselves during the moment, harsh fast stings, minor pains, brief stomach aches, headaches, migraines, as if they could feel the pain even though it wasn’t happening.

All they could hear was the faint cackle of a man.

They would’ve screamed if they didn’t feel paralysed.

 

* * *

 

 

In the air, falling, without time to comprehend what was happening, they screamed before falling onto the grass and dirt, from how far they fell, they couldn’t tell. Gina landed on her stomach, she tried to rise, coughing violently, covered mud and dirt. Colette on her back, she still had the pains from the teleportation, even if it was only for a moment, it felt like anywhere between a second to an eternity in agony.

She sat up, rubbing the back of her head, “God… DAMNIT Keller”, her face contorted, “Wheelchair-bound bastard, could’ve put us a little closer to the ground”, Colette turned to Gina, who looked like she was going to vomit, “You alright?”. Gina turned her head, “Y-…. Yeah, I think so”. Colette smirked and got up, moving over to Gina and offering her hand, “Come on now, on your feet”, Gina grabbed her hand, with Colette lifting her up, she looked exhausted, and rubbed her forehead, “Ok…. Ok…. So we’re…. supposed to be in Hobbs, right?”.

Colette hadn’t really considered where they were, she looked around, it seemed like they were in a canal, but there wasn’t any water around, just rusty pipes, gratings, and… an enormous dark blue tower… piercing the sky, she stumbled back, “Well… wherever we are, I don’t think this is New Mexico”. Gina looked up, her pain turning to shock, her mouth agape “What on earth is that thing?”.

 

The 2 women stood next to each other, baffled and confused, it was like a pole of unforgiving, cold, steel had been shoved into the ground, they could barely comprehend the sheer size of it, it couldn’t have been manmade, they thought they’d won, defeated the aliens.

Gina squinted, and gave herself a reality check, “We should get moving, we need to find someone was can get help from”, Colette nodded and pointed towards the pipe “Might be able to get out if we use that pipe, find a service ladder or something”.

Gina clutched her stomach and Colette held her shoulder, they ambled towards it until hearing a thunderous blaring, deep, echoing, coming from the tower, and a voice that was as cold and unforgiving as the spire “ATTENTION GROUND UNITS: ANTICITIZEN REPORTED IN THIS COMMUNITY”. Again, they stood, more bewildered than before, but recollected themselves “We need to get out of here” Gina reminded Colette, they continued shuffling towards the pipe.

 

Clearly this world wasn’t the same anymore, but for an introduction to what it was, it couldn’t be more alarming or frightening just from the sight of that tower, Gina theorised what might have happened in her head, Colette wondered about her friends and family. Thankfully the tunnel lead to a ladder leading up the surface, “Doesn’t look like there’s much sunlight up there, could be an alleyway” Gina remarked, Colette glared through the hole the ladder led up through “I hope you’re right”.

Colette went up the ladder first to what was presumably safety, Gina couldn’t help but consider the idea who was laughing when they were being teleported, it sounded so eerie, like they knew that they were going to end up in this place, it wasn’t Keller or Dr. Janus, or anyone else she’d ever heard before. Colette reached the top, and poked her head out, Gina could hear a vehicle moving around from below and the sound of multiple bootsteps running somewhere, the sounds died down, Colette looked down to Gina “I think we’re in the clear”.

 

Climbing out from the sewer, Colette kept her eyes peeled for anything strange, it’s safe to say they couldn’t be more paranoid, even after everything they’d seen at Black Mesa, Gina hugged the walls and moved herself towards the edge of the alley, the coast looked clear, she signalled to Colette to move with her. They sneaked across the street to another alley, Colette looked left for a moment, she could see a flying steel thing, made her think of a camera, it didn’t seem to notice them, it was more preoccupied in flying eastwards.

In this alley there was another manhole, Colette shifted the lid aside, her determined attitude fading when a pistol slowly rose out, aimed directly at her. The woman behind the gun seemed rough, she had a look about her as if she’d seen more horrors than the HEV-clad scientists had, what was once blonde hair had become muddy and tarnished, scars and scratches lining her face. Gina and Colette promptly raised their hands up slowly.

She spoke, “You’re not Combine are you…” Gina and Colette glanced at each other for a second, “We don’t even know what that is” Colette confirmed, the woman’s glare tightened “Those suits look like the one Kleiner has”, Gina looked surprised, “You know Dr. Kleiner?” she exclaimed, louder than she needed to. “Shut up! You’ll draw their attention!” the woman snapped, “Just get in, you won’t last 5 minutes up there”, she slid down the ladder back into the sewer, Gina and Colette didn’t really have a choice at this point, they had no idea what was going on, but this place didn’t seem safe.

 

Back down in the sewers, Gina’s mind was racing, Colette seemed to be holding up better, but she’d dropped everything she’d known from Black Mesa, what was happening here seemed to take priority, to her it just seemed like one catastrophe to another. The woman waved her hand for them to follow her, they complied, she mumbled “There’s probably gonna be manhacks down here at any moment, god damn flying buzzsaws are what they are”. Colette noticed her blue clothes seemed to be torn, mostly slashes, with some scars that were still healing.

The woman stopped, rubbing the curved walls of the tunnel unless she found a loose piece of wire, and pulled on it, a section of the wall fell inwards, and without hesitation the woman climbed in, Gina and Colette following behind.

As they went inside, it seemed almost pitch black until a light switch was flipped, and the fluorescent lights shined, illuminating the room, there was a workbench, monitors displaying various places, machine parts, and a bizarre looking rifle that neither of them had ever seen before. The woman turned to face the startled women “Ok now that we’re in relative safety, I guess we can finally introduce ourselves, I’m Allison”, Gina needed a moment more to adjust to what she was looking at, Colette replied in her stead “I’m Colette, this is Gina, we… well I guess we got teleported here, we’re from Black Mesa, but uh… what’s going on with the tower, and the gas mask people, and… everything”.

Allison raised an eyebrow “You’re from Black Mesa? I thought it was nuked 20 years ago?”, Gina and Colette stared at her in horror, “IT WAS WHAT?”, Allison held a finger to her lips “Shh! Just because we’re underground doesn’t mean you can yell”, Gina held her head, still staring in disbelief, Colette backed up to the wall. They thought back to all the people who were left behind, Keller could’ve died in the blast too, god knows what happened to everyone else.

The tower started blaring again, Allison looked up to the ceiling, some dust floating down, “We can’t mope, we’ve gotta get out of here, the Combine are gonna be hunting in every nook and cranny”.

 

Allison turns to one of the monitors, some of the men in gas masks were running to an apartment building nearby, they’d sweep into the sewers if they heard them, she looked back to the 2 scientists, Gina was comforting Colette, high strung and exhausted, from one fire pit to a larger one. The rebel held her head, there was no way they could stay with the Combine on full alert, she’d have to pack up the outpost too, “There’s a pistol and crowbar on the workbench, you’re gonna need some kind of defence”, Allison picked up the rifle “I’ll be using this bad boy myself”.

Gina gave the rebel a miserable glance before tugging at Colette to pick up one of the weapons, Colette gazed into her misty eyes but they both knew they had to keep moving “I’ll take the crowbar, you were always a better shot than I was”, Gina gave a comforting smile “and you had that fire in you”.

They stared into each other eyes for a moment longer, but they had to rip themselves apart to get moving. Colette grasped the Crowbar, wiped off some viscera on the end; Gina picked up the pistol, checked its clip, and slid it back in. Allison looked around the outside of the hideout, and looked back towards them “Come on, coast is clear”.

 

They travelled further down the sewers, Allison took the lead, keeping things quiet. They could hear the occasional rumble of an APC, and the radio chatter of the gas mask people. Allison knew her footing well, checking each corner they came around, prepared for anything. Gina and Colette wished they were still in the state of mind for that, it felt like they’d lost everything in an instant, the adrenaline, the tactics, they were so gung-ho in Black Mesa, yet this situation felt so much different, they couldn’t do it, not here, not after everything they’ve seen and heard from the brief time they’d had in this nightmare.

Allison stopped in her tracks, catching Gina and Colette by surprise, “Hold up” she whispered. She crouched, turned on her flashlight. Clear as day, just a headcrab, Allison bit her lip and aimed down the sights, the parasite oblivious to it’s inevitable fate. Something snapped in Colette though, instinct kicked in, just enough to make a choice she’d regret, and leapt forward, Allison jumped back surprised, crowbar high in the air before falling, cracking what bones the creature had, it’s shrill shriek echoing down the tunnel.

Allison’s focus turned to anger, “What the fuck are you doing!?” shouting as quietly as she could, enough to show her fury, but not for the metrocops above to hear. Colette came back to reality, turning back around to the women she’d passed by “Shit, sorry sorry!”, another headcrab retaliated against the death of its predecessor, jumping and latching onto Colette’s back, she almost fell forward, but wrestled with the claws digging into her shoulder, trying to throw it off. Allison panicked, but Gina rose to action, aiming the pistol.

Breathe in.

Right moment.

Right moment.

A clear shot of its frontal lobe.

Trigger squeezed.

The flash illuminated the entire tunnel, blood splattered it’s rounded ceiling, the headcrab limply flying off Colette’s back with no other to attack them.

 

Gina released tension, pointing the gun down “Are you ok?”, Colette was hunched, holding her knees “Yeah… yeah I’m fine…” she panted for a moment, and looked back to Gina “Thank you…”, the tan dressed scientist smiled in response. Allison had fallen to the floor, still shocked, like she was reliving something. Colette gathered herself to look at her, confused but worried “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, what’s up?”, Allison stared into the nothingness for a moment longer “Nothing… nothing, it’s alright”, she stood back up, wiped her forehead, and readied her rifle again. Gina had wiped some of the blood off Colette’s back, the 2 ladies giving each other warm smiles, Allison wiped her forehead again, muttering “god damnit…”.

She brushed past them, insisting on moving like nothing had happened, Colette patted Gina’s shoulder “Come on”. They had some peace for a moment, before hearing the radio chatter from above again “OVERWATCH: REPORTING GUNFIRE BELOW, GOING TO CHECK IT OUT”, the radio bleeped. Allison looked back to the couple, grimaced, but kept moving, “We’re gonna need to find some cover, might be able to-“ flash, bang, thump.

Allison’s body laid on the floor lifeless, blood staining the floor, from the grating above was a metrocop, “OVERWATCH: REPORTING RESISTANCE BELOW GROUND! REQUESTING SECTOR SWEEP!”, it fled.

Gina and Colette momentarily horrified, but knew what was coming next, they looked to each other, their time had come again, and now it was their turn to take the lead.

 

Gina slid over to an opposing wall, aiming towards the grate, and managed to fire a shot back through the grating, but missed, merely grazing the side of the metrocops helmet, it stumbled for a moment before turning back to retaliate before Gina fired another shot, striking its forehead. Colette was astonished she could even pull that off considering the gratings angle “Nice shot!”, they both grinned like they were kids on Christmas morning, Gina got up and they both rushed down the tunnel.

They could hear the boots of 2 metrocops, they seemed to be following them from above, a T junction ahead, the scientists split off, then the metrocops. Gina saw light shining from above, with sharp shadows, it was another grate, ‘Perfect’ she thought, making a dash to get ahead of the metrocop, she had time to dive onto her back, shot its foot, it recoiled from the hit and leant down, it’s emotionless mask briefly staring at the scientist before she fired another shot into its forehead, she smiled, got back up and started running again.

Colette ran through her tunnel, a grating up ahead, with no gun there wasn’t a way she could pull of any tricky shots like Gina, she instead opted for a more blunt strategy; she rushed forward, sliding the end of her crowbar on the lip of the grate, and once she saw the unlucky feet of the metrocop, hoisted it down, the poor bastard falling into the mercy of Colette’s crowbar, smashing it’s head and breaking the mask, she smirked at it’s mutilated head for a moment “I sure do have a fire in me”, she grabbed it’s gun and dashed through the tunnel again, a wild grin on her face.

 

They met back up at another intersection, “You got a gun, nice” Gina remarked, “Sure is hon” Colette bragged before blushing at the realisation of what she just said, “I’m sorry?”, Colette turned to hide her face “Nothing, let’s keep moving”, and rushed on forwards, Gina blushed too before shaking her head and running to catch up with her.

They could hear radio chatter again, but it didn’t seem like the metrocops, something that sounded more human “Black Mesa East to Station 9: Gordon Freeman has returned, it is critical that he reaches us!”, the 2 women looked at each other for a moment. Gordon Freeman? He wasn’t all that special at Black Mesa, late to everything and awkward as hell, the most interesting thing they’d ever heard him do was climbing in vents to get into Kleiner’s office, anything else was something that’d bore anyone to tears, however Gina liked him, but Colette wish she could say the same.

They could hear movement near the radio “Copy that, we heard some gunfire west of our station, if we go out… well, good luck to Freeman”, the radio fizzled and switched off.

Gina thought to take the lead, make an introduction, she was probably just as paranoid as this situation as they were, mutual fear could lead to friendship.


	2. Discovery

There was a passage to their right, ‘this place has a ridiculous architectural design’ Gina thought to herself, she moved through it, arms raised, there were 2 men who immediately turned to her in surprise, and one of the aliens she saw at Black Mesa, and instinctively aimed her pistol at it. “Get down!” Gina yelled, the man by the radio dived in front of the alien “Woahwoahwoah! He’s friendly, what are you doing!?”, Gina looked bewildered, Colette poked her head around the corner, just as confused as Gina was.

“I killed dozens of those things at Black Mesa, what makes this one different?” Gina sternly affirmed, the man gestured to lower her gun “Calm down, it’s ok, I don’t know who you are that you think you’re from Black Mesa, but the vortigaunts are on our side”. There was a deafening silence in the room, Gina was statuesque, confident in her morals, Colette was more submissive however, things were much different now, she reasoned it wasn’t impossible that such a thing was true.

Slowly, she stepped over to Gina, her hand on the barrel of her gun “It’s ok, I think he’s right”, gently she pushed her gun down “It’s alright”. Colette watched Gina’s eyes loosen up, her focus dwindling as the iron sights faded from her sight. The man lowered his arms too, the vort moving back into Gina’s view, she sighed “I’m sorry, I-“, Colette held her shoulder “It’s ok”.

 

The other man had his hand on his shotgun, things could have gone very very sour if Gina went through with what she was planning, he stepped away from it to stand next to the other rebel. The man who defended the vort finally introduced himself “My name is James, this is Harold, and this is our vortigaunt friend… they don’t really have… names”, the vort glanced at James momentarily seeming insulted, Gina rubbed her forehead “I’m Gina, and this is Colette, we’re… well we don’t know, we were in Black Mesa, and now we seem to be… in the future I guess, and everything just seems… awful”.

Harold looked to his shotgun for a moment before looking back at Gina “You know if you’d made the wrong move, I’d have-“ “I know” interrupted Gina, “I’m sorry, we’re just… really paranoid”. James glared at Harold, Colette still holding her shoulder, the vort walked over to a generator in the corner of the room giving it a quick zap “Your past actions against ourselves will make you regret, but fret not, we have mutual enemies, and all is forgiven, as we were not ourselves, as you were not yourselves”.

The lights in the room flickered momentarily, before becoming brighter, a map was illuminated on the wall nearby, Gina, Colette, and the vort see it clearly. The vort points towards a facility to the east “Black Mesa East, as you no doubt heard about, is located here, the Freeman will likely be followed by the darkest of shadows, even now he strays further away from us, the shadows following you, are meagre and petty.”

 

Gina looks more confused, Colette looks to James “Essentially the metrocops are gonna be chasing after Freeman and not you, you shouldn’t have to worry too much with the Citadel on full alert”, that sounded almost contradictory to the 2 women, Gina thought to apologise by letting them know the bad news. “We got attacked by those gas mask people, it sounded like they reported we were in the area, they might come through here”, James rubbed his chin and paced around, Harold glared at Gina for a second before sitting next to his shotgun. “Well if that’s going to happen we’ll have to pack up as fast as we can, but with Freeman way ahead of us, there’s going to be less metrocops coming down our way” James reasoned, Harold had an objection however “Then what about these 2, they stick out like a sore thumb and about as subtle as a headcrab canister”.

James looked them up and down, analysed them, their HEV suits covered in viscera, bullet holes, scratches, markings, Gina’s suit had patches and rudimentary fixtures from it’s damage, but Colette’s looks like it had been intentionally marked with tallies of her kills. James turned to Harold “They’ll be alright, the only thing wrong with them is their introduction skills”, Gina frowned, but Colette couldn’t help but think about how awkward Gina was when they first met, so he wasn’t wrong.

 

Harold judged James for a moment, but he moved his shotgun further away from himself, the vort watched tentatively, “Fine” Harold finally responded “Just don’t let them think it’s gonna be easy sailing for any of us”. James turned the radio on, the microphone had some feedback but he just turned it on and off, “Alyx, do you read? Have you heard the names Gina and Colette?”, there was some silence before there was a response “My dad says he has, apparently promising scientists at Black Mesa, we thought they were dead, have they turned up too?”.

Gina wasn’t sure she appreciated being considered dead, but Colette smiled thinking they were at least good at their jobs for what little time they had them. James turned to them “They have, they seem pretty clueless about what’s going on though”, Gina stepped forward to provide some more context “We were teleported by Dr. Keller, but something went wrong and we ended up 20 years into the future, we don’t even know who we’re fighting”. There was silence from the radio again before a new voice came from it, it seemed to be an old man, but the voice sounded familiar “Gina? Colette? I can’t believe it’s you two! Keller is a name I haven’t heard in a very long time, he must’ve had something up his sleeve if he wanted to try out his teleporters”. Colette rubbed the back of her head, she almost missed Keller, that moment before they left was wonderful, the sheer joy from all 3 of them relieved more stress than when she first got to know she was accepted for Black Mesa.

 

Gina leaned into the microphone “He wanted to send us to see Odessa Cubbage in Hobbs, but… It’s too late for that by now”, she could hear a sigh coming from the old man “Keller, Keller, Keller… what were you thinking…”, Gina turned to look at Colette almost as if she wanted to know if she had an answer. “Well it’s not exactly late, he’s still kicking it, now he’s putting on a fake accent and handling an outpost on the coast called ‘New Little Odessa’, the vain madman that he is”, Colette coughed out a giggle before turning towards the wall to hide her unrelenting grin, Gina rolled her eyes.

“Either way, he’s out of the question, things are busy enough here with Gordon on the way, we’re awaiting his arrival, but he’s taking his time it seems”, they could hear what was presumably a map unfolding from the other side, “Now, you’re gonna want to keep going east, there’s an outpost for people who want to get to White Forest Base, it's a silo where we’re uh, building something there that will help us defeat the Combine once and for all, among some other things”. Harold stuck his head up “You can get to the outpost in about a day, from there you can get to the forest through some mineshafts leading up to the edge of it, and then it’s a 4 hour walk to the base itself”.

 

The voice on the radio seemed to be talking to someone else “I don’t know why she’s handling entrance checks either Alyx, you can talk to Mossman about it later”, the voice became clearer “Sorry about that, anyway you just need to continue through these tunnels until you get to Station 66, we only discovered it recently, it seems like a secret research centre made by the soviets back in the day, thankfully the Combine aren’t interested in human history to discover it themselves”. Gina smiled “Thank you, we’ll head there as fast as we can”, she turned to James, he seemed fairly pleased he was able to help “Are you going to come with us?”, James shook his head “We can’t, no doubt the Combine are clearing out the other outposts, we’re probably the last connection into the city”.

It seemed almost insane to stay here, especially with the metrocops that will inevitably investigate here, but James seemed like the kind of person to know what he was doing. Harold sighed “Fine then, but you’re not gonna make it with just 2 pistols and some steel, you’re gonna need this”, he handed out 2 shotguns hidden in a chest, Gina picked it up, it was almost exactly like the one she was using in Black Mesa, Colette seemed excited however, cocking it and muttering “Oh I missed you baby”. “Why do you have 3 shotguns?” Gina queried, Harold couldn’t help but give a condescending eyebrow raise, “We fight an authoritarian regime that wants everyone dead, why wouldn’t we stockpile weapons”, Gina pulled a sheepish look, but at least that’s 1 mystery of many solved.

 

The vort moved towards the opposite end of the hideout, signalling for Gina and Colette to follow, it seemed frustrated that they were lingering any longer, whether it was because they were putting the hideout at more risk, or that it had to be pleasant in the presence of genocidal psychopaths, it wouldn’t say. It shifted a wall forwards, “Quickly, you’re needed elsewhere” it demanded, glaring at Gina briefly, she couldn’t have felt guiltier about how she reacted and tried to avoid its stare, Colette gently pulled at her arm, encouraging her forwards, “Come on”. James and Harold stood at the exit, the vort moving back into the hideout, “Stay safe!”, the couple looked back towards them, Colette delivering a smile and wave, Gina still felt horrible about the way she reacted, this wasn’t her world anymore, she couldn’t help but envy how quickly Colette was adapting.

 

Going forwards, it felt like the tunnels were getting increasingly older and decrepit, the pipes running along the walls would dive in and out of view, becoming persistently rustier, the ground littered with rat feces and machine parts, walls that seemed to get danker and more decayed the further they went. The boots of their HEV suits still had some marks of vortigaunt blood, bits of viscera from Black Mesa, Gina remarked a piece of bullsquid flesh that’d lodged itself into the back of Colette’s suit, Colette seemingly noticed it at the same time, plucking it out without much care or concern. Gina stopped in her tracks and stared at it, it looked like a bit of it’s foot, whether she or Colette had killed it didn’t matter, she couldn’t help but feel that they were too out of place to survive in this world now.

Thrown out of it’s comfort zone into unfamiliar territory. Dead weight. Colette could hear the silence from Gina, turning to her partner, “Are you ok?”.

Gina stared at the giblet for a moment longer, her face turning into a scowl before pushing it away her foot, “Yeah.”

 

They weren’t too talkative inside Black Mesa, it was a rush for survival, but now everything had slowed down, there wasn’t any more combat to keep things exciting, it was just a whole lot of walking, and almost no talking. Colette tightened her gloves, her shotgun firmly squeezed underneath her armpit, “So, Odessa’s alive, no point going to him, but this White Forest, we’re heading there, right?”, Gina sighed “Yeah, I guess so, nowhere else for us to go”.

Colette held her shotgun again, hand around the pump, finger off the trigger, no hostility, “Are you sure you’re alright, I would have thought we had more time to talk now”, Gina squirmed momentarily “I’m- I don’t know, even if we do get to White Forest, what then? Wait around until this ‘Combine’ gets destroyed?”, Colette stared ahead “I doubt we’ll be sitting twiddling our thumbs, we’re badasses with shotguns, they’re gonna have us kill something”.

Once again, Gina stopped in her tracks “Is that really what you want”, Colette finally turned to her, her eyelids wide when she could finally see Gina’s face, her eyes were welling up, mouth twisted in anger and sadness, shaking unending, “Is that really what you fucking want”. Colette dropped her shotgun, she couldn’t muster anything to say to her “Gina, I-“, Gina shot her foot forwards planting it inches away from Colette’s blood soaked boots, hands clenched tightly into shaking fists “IS IT”.

 

Colette raised her hands up to her waist, as if to defend herself, legs shifted backwards before recomposing herself “No… I wish things could be normal again, and I miss everything as much as you do, believe me Gina”. Gina released her fists, her tear ducts bursting, crashing into Colette’s suit, her head resting on her shoulder, Colette caught her, one hand stroking her back, another holding her head.

“I’m sorry” Colette whispered, the whimpers of Gina echoing down the dead tunnel, tears streaming down the unforgiving steel of Colette’s suit.

“It’s ok”, Gina’s shotgun lay behind her, forgotten in favour of Colette’s embrace.

“We’re gonna be ok”, her own eyes finally feeling misty, fingers trembling over Gina’s back.

 

“I love you”

 

Crumpled to the floor, kneeling in respite, held in each other’s arms. Colette’s eyelids had gone limp, exhausted, for the first time in a long time she felt deep release, and realised how tired she was. Gina’s breathing had almost calmed down, finally managing to mutter into her ear.

 

“I love you too”.

 

Colette’s hug tightened in response, it wasn’t the best time to say how she felt, she was happy for her feelings to be mutual, but they can’t enjoy it when they had to keep moving. She patted Gina’s back “We’ve gotta get going”, “Alright” Gina wiped her tears away, standing back up, Colette supporting her. She still seemed pained, but gave a loving smile, gazing deeply into Colette’s eyes “Thank you”, the red-clad scientist smiled back, “You gonna be ok?”,

Gina wiped her cheeks again “Yeah”.

They recollected their weapons, Colette taking a look back at Gina, giving a smirk “You know back in Black Mesa when I said ‘Consider your ass covered’?”

“Yeah?”

“It sure was a pleasure to cover”.

Gina’s cheeks quickly became a rosy red “You- This isn’t the-“, Colette couldn’t help but cackle, Gina was frustrated, but she wouldn’t admit that she was smiling about it too, holding her face in her hands, Colette’s snickering ceased just so she could say it again “I love you so much”, Gina replying with a muffled ‘I love you too’, Colette’s grin cracked again.

 

They collected themselves, walking down the tunnel, hand in hand, some troubles still clouded Gina’s mind, but she felt happier knowing that she didn’t have to hide anymore, Colette took a stab in the dark saying that, and thank god she did. She tried to keep herself prim and proper, even in the head of the Black Mesa incident, but she can’t help but feel like a school girl when Colette said that. She kept playing it back in her head, her inflection, her accent, her voice, those 3 words meant so much more to her than the relationship between them, it was something she hadn’t heard in so long, and in such a kind way.

Colette wrestled with the doubts in her head however, as much as that was relieving to say the least, she couldn’t help but think about the implications of that situation, was that really the right time? Was she being manipulative? Couldn’t she have left it for later? Her fears burnt out once Gina’s hand tightened around her own, her smile cooled her head, and she smiled in response. Their hands entwined in the others, and the shotguns held in their remaining hand. So much of their life was gone, yet there were new freedoms they couldn’t have dreamt of before.

 

Up ahead was a dead end, there wasn’t any obvious exits, and with these secret doorways they’d seen before, they doubted it was any different here. Gina let go of Colette’s hand for a moment, feeling the walls for anything, she could feel some kind of breeze on the north side of the wall, now it was just a matter of finding the way to open it. Colette couldn’t see any way to open it up, until she looked at her shotgun, and realised why Harold gave them to her, letting out a chuckle.

“Could you move aside for a moment?” Colette asked politely, Gina complied but gave a confused stare to her, Colette raised her shotgun, Gina’s eyes widened and she dove out of the way. With a quick blast, the wall blew apart, an entrance revealing itself, “Must be a one-way escape cause that doesn’t look replaceable” Colette remarked and pumped her shotgun giving a sly smirk admiring the tactics of these rebels.

Gina looked in horror, this really was a world for Colette now, she couldn’t exactly take the scientific approach she did when she was surviving in Black Mesa, she reasoned with herself that she’ll adapt like Colette has eventually.

 

Stepping over the fake brick and mortar, the 2 came to see an office of some kind, turning on the flashlight it seemed like it was filled with a hell of a lot of desks, computers, and accompanying monitors, they were blocked off from each other, cobwebs decorated the area, but no overgrowth, whatever the hell this place was for, it didn’t seem like there’d been any rebels here. Gina wiped off part of the desk with her hand, she thought she could see old and dried blood, the Cold War must barely be a flicker in people’s minds during these times, but it didn’t feel like it was that far away in her mind, she wondered what horrors people had to endure when this place was active.

Colette ambled around the room for anything that didn’t look like it hadn’t spent over 30 years of being forgotten, but to no avail, she couldn’t even hear the hum of lights, or anything for that matter, seemed like this place was dead. The 2 heard a thump on the other side of the eastern wall, and something moaning, before a gunshot, the scientists were stunned, but looked to each other, Gina looked confused and mildly afraid, Colette gave a worried stare, they turned off their flashlights and mutedly put themselves away from each other. There was a door to the southeast, Gina steadied her arms on the desk, Colette positioned herself next to a cabinet, shotgun trained on the door. Gina held her breath, but Colette steadied her breathing, with all the dust it didn’t make it easy, but she tried regardless.

 

The door creaked open slowly, Colette couldn’t get a good look through the creak, it looked even darker than the room they were in, Gina tightened her grip, finger off the trigger, she didn’t want to make the same mistake as last time. As the door opened wider, Colette’s focus became tighter, until a body fell forwards, a rebel covered in open wounds and lacerations fell to the floor, he was very pale, barely breathing and on his back. Colette holstered her shotgun, but Gina rushed over, sliding across the floor on her knees to aid him “I can help, you’re gonna be ok, what happened?”, the man was barely moving, but spoke to her “It isn’t worth it… it’s” he coughs out some blood, Gina hurriedly gets a med vial out she had hooked around her waist. He turns to his left to look at Colette, she walks over, she’s unconfident in her medical abilities, but she’ll do whatever Gina asks of her.

Gina pops open the vial, and gently opens his mouth to give him the contents, he jerks his head away, closing his mouth, “it’d… be a waste”. They glare at him for a moment but tries to explain himself “I’m too… far gone…”, Gina closes the vial, hooking it back onto her waist. He looks back to Gina “White Forest… won’t make it… if you don’t burn everything here”. His chest rumbled, like something was squirming inside, he tightened up, as if he was trying to push it back down without his hands.

 

Colette pushed down on his chest, he tried to shove her away, but before he could, the squirming became more violent, pushing at his chest unnaturally, Colette moved her hands away, they watched as whatever was inside of him moved down his body and through his right leg.

Quick Thinking.

Colette grabs her shotgun, aims, the squirming is at his knee.

Boom.

 

Gina’s ears rang, she could see the man thrashing around, Colette tried to squeeze around the stump to slow down the bleeding, Gina’s eyes were wide, but she tried to hold the mans arms down, she stared past his leg, something had shot out of his leg, she could barely tell it was dead with all the movement happening. Her ears slowly stopped ringing Colette was covered in blood, she looked furious, but his movements started dying down, whether it was him bleeding out or just the shock. Colette just… she… the man was still now. Gina could finally hear Colette’s heavy breathing, she stared at the face of the corpse, unflinching, unfettered, his blood marked on her face, splattered into her hair. Gina didn’t know whether to be scared or angry, but she couldn’t muster a moment of emotion, she couldn’t even fathom what just happened.

 

Colette looked down and closed her eyes, letting a long breath out, before opening her eyes again to look at what came out of his leg. Gina stared blankly into nothing, lost in thought, she could barely comprehend the events that just transpired. Colette stood up, looking out through the door he came through, it looked like the facility was extremely deep. She wiped some of the blood from her face, she realised how violently her hands were shaking, and then came back to reality, seeing Gina shaking violently too. ‘What did I just do?’ ran through her head, she tossed the shotgun aside and reached for Gina’s shoulder, but she fled backwards to the wall, she stared into Colette’s eyes like she’d seen the devil. Gina’s lips were quivering, she tried to formulate a sentence, she struggled so hard to keep things together, she let go only minutes ago, and now she was on the brink of another breakdown. This was too much. Finally, her tongue spat and released her voice, but all she could say was “Why?”. Colette stared, and wiped her face again, she couldn’t speak too, but again, their tongues couldn’t be tied forever, “No- no I”, she wiped her face again. Gina couldn’t steady her shaking. “HE WAS STILL ALIVE” she screamed, Colette shook more violently, she couldn’t stop trying to wipe her face, it only felt like she was smearing more blood on herself. She stared at his corpse again, his mouth was wide open but his face was still.

 

Gina huddled herself up, muttering something, she couldn’t even tell what she was saying herself, a mish mash of words, it didn’t feel coherent, nothing felt together. Colette stared back through the door, why did she feel like something was coming, Gina couldn’t do this, she didn’t even feel ready herself, but they’ve got to do… something. The thing that came out of his leg twitched, Gina hurriedly stood up to stomp it, and it meekly tightened it’s legs one final time before letting go of what little life it had to die. Colette watched the other room, trying to rip her thoughts away from what she just did. Gina pushed her foot further into it’s corpse. Her fists tight. Colette didn’t have an answer. Instinct wasn’t good enough. The 2 were motionless, silent. That quiet time was shattered by the sounds of movement further into the facility. Something scuttling away. Colette looked to Gina. Gina looked to Colette. There was fury in Gina’s eyes. Colette simply looked focused. They’d been so happy before, and already it was shattered. Colette grabbed her shotgun, Gina cocked her pistol. Colette thrusted a shell into her shotgun, Gina checked her clip. They’d lost the instinct to fight when they thought it was over. Now they’re back. They weren’t scientists anymore, just survivors.


End file.
